Socialism and Democracy in Argentina in the Age of the Second International

Abstract

H E "failure" of Argentine socialism prior to World War II has stirred the interest of historians and social scientists. Whereas the European working classes became strong supporters of democratic socialism, the Argentine working class, even in free elections, spurned and continues to spurn a Socialist option. What's more, the working class of Argentina, and of Latin America as a whole (with the arguable exception of Chile), traditionally has thrown its support behind populist parties. The failure of socialism and the success of populism are connected: the weakness of socialism in Argentina, and in Latin America in general, opened the way for populist politicians to galvanize the unintegrated masses into a forceful political movement. In Argentina, this correlation is especially pronounced: the failure of democratic socialism before 1930 left vacant a political space that Colonel Juan Domingo Peron successfully exploited in the wake of the 1943 coup d'etat.'